For Half a Second
by astateofmind
Summary: Inside Klaus's head before, during, and after he approached Caroline in front of his picture 4x09 Rated T for Language
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Vampire Diaries. Although I wish I did.

Caroline stood in front of his painting, head tilted in contemplation. Although the light in the bar was substandard, and the air was heavy with the breaths and bodies of too many people, she seemed separate from it all, better than it all, like the sun in the sky.

Klaus sighed across the room and let his eyes drop heavily to his always too empty bourbon glass. This was pathetic. Why on earth he was mooning like some pathetic, lovesick teenager over a girl who repeatedly rejected and insulted him was beyond his comprehension, and that irked him tremendously.

Goddamn Caroline and goddamn feelings. He hated feelings. They twisted him up and broke him down and eventually left him empty and yearning for things that he did not even know he wanted. Such a pain. It would be easier to hate her. He should kill her. After all, she and her little gang of friends did try to end his life upon multiple occasions, and it would only be right to return the favor, as she was nothing to him nor did she give any indication that she wanted to be something to him. But he could never do that. Not to her. He could never snuff out the light in her because the thought of such a thing happening pulled on a string that was resolutely and brutally attached to his heart.

He could not remember the exact moment when he started to care about Caroline. Nor could he pinpoint exactly why he liked her. Of course she was beautiful, smart, strong. But over the course of a thousand years he had encountered many women who possessed all those traits. Some of them were even more beautiful, smart, or strong than Caroline, yet none of them ever struck him like she did. There was something about Caroline made him want to like her and made him want to be someone that she could like back.

However, he had never been good at change or compromise. Klaus was the alpha male after all and the world should bend for him, not the other way around. But sometimes. Just sometimes. When he was at his lowest and alone at night in his creaking mansion where his only company was a spider in the corner and a fire in the hearth, the titanium vault that was locked around his heart would break open and let all the loneliness he felt seep out into his body like a sickness.

He would think about Caroline in her warm, lived in home, and about all of her friends over there with her, and he would hurt because he knew that would never be his world. How lame, he would think. He had all the power and wealth in the world, and yet the one thing he wanted was the one thing he could not have. The cliché of it all made him nauseous, but it did not make his wanting any less true.

He liked Caroline. Hell, if she would ever squash her pride and speak to him for more than ten minutes in a less than sarcastic tone, he might even love her. But for now, Klaus liked her immensely and was tired of watching her from afar. He needed to get her take on his post-modern snowflake and try to get her to smile at him, even if it only lasted for half a second.


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own Vampire Diaries, but I wish I did. Enjoy!

Klaus watched Caroline's body stiffen slightly as he approached. Normally he would pin her reaction down to her resentment of his presence, but lately he was not so sure. Both of them were all too aware of how quickly any environment could turn deadly with the hybrids, the temperamental Salvatore brothers and the vampire-bloodthirsty Jeremy Gilbert lurking about.

He supposed she was wise to be constantly wary of any supernatural presence approaching her. However, she need not be afraid of him. Well…not right now anyway. At the moment, Caroline was the only person dead or alive who was absolutely safe in his presence; safe from both himself and anyone else that dared to wish her harm.

But judging by the cold, lipless smile she gave him after asking if he was at the bar to steal Tiny Tim's crutches, he figured he still had a long way to go before she accepted that fact. But, that was alright. Klaus had always loved a challenge, and Caroline was proving to be the most fantastic and fantastically beautiful of them all.

His eyes flicked faster than she could see up and down her form, admiring her slender legs and soft dress. The delicate appearance was deceiving because he knew Caroline had a lionheart and was a veteran when it came to torture. He enjoyed that about her. That she was bloodied but not broken, that she was light but could embrace the dark.

"Dickens was a dark man." His ageless gaze took her in. "You would have liked him."

If only, he did not like her so much. Fuck, he needed to suppress those pathetic longings quickly before she read them on his face and fled. He loved a good chase but he did not want to chase her away, so he smoothed his expression and strolled towards her with the predatory grace of a lifelong aristocrat. Watching with regret as she warily moved to the opposite end of the table.

A flicker of anxiety passed over her eyes as she looked at him; the consequence of attempting to resolve her judgments about him based on his past and the feelings that he inspired in her presently. Klaus knew she was struggling to accept that he was not the monster she always believed him to be. The conversation they had on the day of the Miss Mystic Falls Pageant had irrevocably upset her belief in his status as evil incarnate. Yet, he could tell that she would deny this knowledge to herself as long as possible. After all, change was not an easy thing, and Caroline was one of those women who hated to admit wrongdoing.

Although it was pathetic, he was unexplainably glad that he had an immortal's time to wait for her acceptance because he really, really wanted it. He wanted her. How sickening to possibly love someone.


End file.
